slow macbook pro

How is it slowing down? I find this curious as I have a late 2008 MacBook with the same specs. However, mine hasn't slowed down or shown any symptoms you describe.

Can you put the screenshots of the current Activity Monitor to check for current usage of system resources?

 

Those screenshots just showed me your problem. Your computer, for whatever idiotic reason, is using the Swap memory instead of the actual RAM memory. In other words, it is using the much slower hard drive for memory purposes rather than he intended and faster RAM modules.

The 4GB of RAM your computer has isn't even used. More han half it is still free space. However your Mac seems to be using quite a large amount of Swap due to the 712MB shown and the amount of Page Outs shown as well.

Go to Apple and have this issue diagnosed further. It seems your RAM modules might be defective.

 

That's not true. Page outs are cumulative since the last restart, so it indicates that at some point there was paging activity, but not at the time of the screen shot. This is supported by the fact that the swap used is less than the cumulative page outs, indicating that some of the swap used has already been released. There are no page outs occurring at the time of the screen shots. There's nothing wrong with the RAM modules.

Slow boot up and app launching could indicate a drive going bad. Make sure you have a current backup.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

I'd run a software update and restart the computer and see what that does for it.

 

Wrong, after a restart you have no page outs or swap. Everything is from scratch.

You see don't page outs happening when the shot was taken, they just happened. How do I know? Because I run my Mac nonstop and this is what happens when I don't reboot after a while. Moreover, doing a reboot clears all the stuff and brings it up to speed. Main reason why I'm getting 8GB.

 

I know that. Since the screen shots show page outs, that indicates it has been some time since the OP's last restart, so page outs have accumulated.

There is no indication showing when page outs occurred. You have no idea when they happened, and they certainly aren't happening with so much free and inactive memory.

 

That certainly does not happen. Of you reboot your page outs disappear regardless of when you last rebooted. Seriously. We may not know when they happen, but it is obvious from the high swap usage that they did happen. Also, just look at the swap amount used. It's 3/4 of a GB of swap. Quite a lot. I'd say there is a serious issue underlying there.

 

Again, that's what I already said. When you restart your computer, it resets the page outs and swap used values to zero.

That's exactly what I said. Page outs have occurred since the OP's last restart, but they are not occurring at the time of the screen shot, since there is free and inactive RAM available in the screen shots. The page outs occurred previously, when there was no free or inactive RAM available. That condition had changed by the time the screen shots were taken. Therefore, it is not true that at the time of the screen shot that the OP's computer "is using the Swap memory instead of the actual RAM memory". The swapfiles have simply not been released, and they won't be completely released until the next restart.

 

Yet the machine still has an issue regarding memory usage as it begs the question, why is it using Swap instead of memory when it still has over 2GB free? That to me is a flag of either the software or the RAM modules.

 

It's not. Where are you getting the idea that it is?

 

From the fact that there is large chunk of free memory available in all screenshots and that all ofthem have the 700MB swap used.

 

Let's try this again. The swap used, like the page outs, will not go to zero until a restart. At some point in time after the OP's last restart and before the screen shots were taken, page outs occurred and swapfiles were created. That paging activity has since stopped, but page outs still show the cumulative amount of the page outs, and swap used still shows swapfiles that were used during that paging activity. The page outs will only return to zero when another restart occurs. The same is true for swap used. It will not return to zero, even though it is not currently being used, until the computer is restarted. The fact that there is a value in either page outs or swap used does not indicate that paging activity is currently happening or that swap files are currently in use. It only indicates that paging to the swapfile occurred at some time since the last restart, at a time when there was no free or inactive memory available.

 

It doesn't matter! The whole point of this conversation is that why did the computer use so much swap? There in lays the problem. A mac only uses swap when the entirety of its RAM resources is gone. In this case there is a clear 2GB left over.

Sure quitting an app gives you the space back, but never will it mean that the Inactive will go down to a few MBs and Free will show 2GB+. There is something wrong with her computer and that is final. A Mac should use so much swap with so much memory available.

 

Not final. She never posted a screenshot of FCPX and project open at the same time. Chances are FCPX is just blowing through memory creating major swaps and then releasing to free on quit leaving the page outs/ins counter as shrapnel. Quitting an app that mem hungry will indeed recoup to free. FCPX in general and even small projects will use 2-3.4GB memory after doing work in it. Leaving nothing for the kernel or Safari or anything else. I have no issue with anything else in this thread in regards to memory management as you both are saying pretty damn near the same things.

 

Yes, but there was not 2GB left over when the paging occurred. You don't seem to grasp the fact that there can be no free memory at the time of paging, but there can be free memory available at a later time.

Of course it can. Not all memory which was previously used is held as inactive RAM. Some may be held as inactive, some can be returned to free memory. Mac OS X manages this process automatically. The fact that there is free memory currently available does not indicate that the free memory was never used.

There is nothing wrong with the OP's computer. It is not using swap. It previously used swap, but not now. You also don't seem to grasp the fact that Mac OS X will not release all the swap files until the next restart, even if it is no longer using it.

There is nothing in the screen shot to indicate paging activity is occurring at the time of the screen shots, or that paging activity ever occurred at a time when free memory was available.

Exactly.

 

To stop apps from launching on startup, delete any occurrences of those apps from the following locations:

• System Preferences > Accounts > yourusername > Login Items
  (Lion and ML users: System Preferences > Users & Groups > yourusername > Login Items)
  
  
• /Library/LaunchAgents/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)
  
  
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)
  
  
• /Library/StartupItems/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)

 

Sorry for the confusion. Post a screenshot as you did previously but have your project and apps open when you experience the slowdowns AS they are happening.
Most likely you need to upgrade to 8GB RAM. The screenshot of Activity Monitor can help determine this.